One World Insight Blog | Douglas "Las" Wengell

China’s Neighbors Falling into Beijing’s Orbit

I wonder what China’s neighbors think about its boundless growth –  the implication of being tethered into Beijing’s widening orbit. The answer: uneasy.

Firms in Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, even India, are having a tough time competing with China (never mind bygone Western manufacturers).  From conversations with business men in Hong Kong and Thai businessmen heading back to Bangkok, everyone, including the Americans, share a frustration with the undervalued renminbi because it makes Chinese goods cheaper to the Walmart’s of the world and hurts domestic exports.

As I write, the airport screen is reporting that Vietnam is devaluing its currency by 5 percent, to compete with China. Hanoi’s travel budget just increased.

The Chinese military is seeking to project naval power well beyond the Chinese coast, from the oil ports of the Middle East to the shipping lanes of the Pacific, where the United States Navy has long reigned as the dominant force, military officials and analysts say.

New Delhi firms are filing unfair-trade complaints with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, similar to NAFTA, and we’re talking mighty, fast-developing India.

The Asia Tigers are becoming the Asian Tiger. America is less of a concern so long as it keeps buying, goes the rational, but “their manufacturing is toast,” said a Beijing business man,  with an hint of spite. 

It’s taking a lot in order to grow itself into a first world society.  It’s frustrating legions of businesses outside its borders. When will it step up responsibility commensurate with its prosperity? When will it help patrol shipping lanes, or offer financial assistance to its neighbors, and be a global arbiter that befits a superpower?

How will China, a historically insular and to-itself civilization, act in the region, and on the global stage? China’s neighbor’s are not the only uneasy observers.

Last fall, during a speech in Washington, Lee Kuan Yew, the former Singaporean leader, reflected widespread anxieties when he noted China’s naval rise and urged the United States to maintain its regional presence. “U.S. core interest requires that it remains the superior power on the Pacific,” he said. “To give up this position would diminish America’s role throughout the world.”

Depart Laos for Hanoi, Vietnam

Laos is isolated from the world. A bus to Hanoi takes 24 hours, a plane 1 hour. This time I oft for Western expediency at only twice the cost.

Laos is a terrific country in Southeast Asia. The people are warm and friendly, humble and focused on the things in life that matter most. They are a proud people, evidenced by “Go Laos!” stickers on nearly every car!

Fellow Travelers and a Superwoman Solo Biker

Moving on the tourist circuit, it’s inevitable you encounter fellow travelers. I have more conversations than I can recount. Here's a few of recent.

A young Finish woman studying biology and ecology, pondering whether to become a nun.

Or a German woman traveling solo for six months, complaining that “people back home are cold and it’s hard to meet people like when you’re on the road.”

Or a young Polish couple, who cannot find suitable employment in Poland, despite his graduate degree in engineering and her specialization in tourist. They worked in a UK factory to save money to make this trip possible. They are resigned. “We love our country but there’s nothing there for us. Maybe, one day, our kids but not us.”

Or two Hong Kong Chinese biking there way through Indochina. “China has made life harder in Hong Kong. Too many emigrants. You can’t afford to live there. There are no good jobs for people like us.”

Then you come across the truly amazing. Like New Zealander Kylie, who I met in Laos and is biking, solo, a woman, across Europe and Asia, from London to Auckland, taking boats where necessary. Her stories biking through Pakistan and Iran defy belief. Go girl!www.bugbitten.com/kyles

Vientiane, Laos, Lazy Capital

Spending just a couple days here. It’s Laos’ “big city” on the Mekong, with train service across the river back to Bangkok, or bus southward, toward Cambodia.  It’s not very enjoyable and most use it as a springboard elsewhere. It does exhibit Laos’ most sacred temple.

 

Asian Smoke Stacks

Tobacco companies make a, well, killing in Asia, where smoking is ubiquitous by men. All the efforts to regulate smoking in the West have done little to dampen these firms profits, who have been exploiting the Asian market for at least the last twenty years.

Cigarettes are cheap, too. Other than gruesome pictures of tarred lungs on the package, and a local language warning, there is no incentive to quiet.

Women for the most part don’t smoke, and certainly not in public. Young European women, seduced perhaps by feeling immortality, is another story.

Morning Alms in Luang Pravang

Every morning at 6 a.m. the monks of Luang Pravang walk down the street, in quiet formation, to Laos people waiting for their arrival. The monks carry baskets. They receive Khnom, an offering: a combination of sticky rice, crackers and food stuff, and small bills that carry them through the day.

“The simpler the life, the happier the life,” is oft used to describe the Laos worldview and perhaps more so the life of the monk.

If you find a quiet street around the corner, you can see the real thing; otherwise the main procession is full of somewhat insensitive tourist-photographers. You’d think the monks are movie stars. The locals find it annoying and the monks chagrined. Later, some young monks joked with me, wanting to know why tourists take so many pictures of them and what they do with them, and “what they are looking for if they already have everything.”

I had no answer.  

Luang Pravang, Laos

Luang Prabang is considered the crown jewel city of Southeast Asia. I can see why. It’s on a hill, surrounded by two rivers and mountains, with small streets and French architecture. Monks walk about. You can walk around the town. As a UNESCO world heritage site, no busses and trucks are allowed. What’s there not to like! PHOTOS.

The lazy days are spent walking about, meeting locals, talking to monks and fellow travelers, and generally getting into respectable trouble.

One memorable night I watch the sunset from a hilltop temple and then join Buddhist monks chanting in a dark, candle lit cove, far away from the “farang,” an endearing Laos and Thai term meaning foreigner.

Another I stumble on (i.e., crash) an outdoor hospital staff party and dance with twenty Laos on a basketball court, to a live band, to traditional music, the most lovely hand gestures, paired in couples, moving in a slow circle.

Another I meander the streets in pitch black, as power up here cannot always be counted on.

The Ethnic Peoples of Laos

There are three broad populations in Laos, who emigrated from modern day Myanmar, China, Thailand and Vietnam over the last few centuries.

Lao Loum – lowland valleys and rivers (South)

Lao Theung – mountain slopes and upland valleys (Center)

Lao Soung – mountain summits (North)

Surrounded my mountains on three sides, Laos is so remote that it was not accessible by road until the late 1990s. Village life lives on as if another century. Getting around the country is slow going, and locals cannot afford to take a plane.

Most Laos in remote tribes, far from the few urban towns, so the only way to get a real feel for its people is to stay with a local family in a village. Luckily, there is a robust eco-ethnic tourist infrastructure to do just that, with resources going back to locals. There is an impressive effort to preserve the environment, promote literacy and educate tourists about Laos.

Many Laos will sleep ten people in a bamboo hut with no water or electricity, grow their own food, rarely eat meat, drink water and lao lao (rice alcohol), bath and do laundry in the river. The minimum wage is one dollar a day, less than the cost of a BeerLao. Average annual income is $1,000.

The only things made in Laos are basic farm crops, handicrafts, textiles, wood products, cement, electricity, cigarettes, beer and soft drinks. Everything else is imported, which explains why things are more expensive than neighboring Thailand and Vietnam. This comes as a surprise to most visitors, including me.

Where are the Elders?

I was wondering why I don’t see any people older than fifty. On the back of a restaurant menu tonight is my answer:

“Please keep your perspective. You are in one of the most remote and poorest countries in the world. When you argue over a few thousand kip, you’re arguing about a few cents with people who are so poor that when they or their loved ones get sick they die. Look around – how many old people do you see? You’re being “ripped off” for pennies by people who have nothing but the smile on their face.”

Mekong Woes

Here too globalization encroaches. The Mekong River, the world’s 12^th-longest, is no long so wild. Desperate for foreign investment, the government is selling damming rights to power-hungry China and threatening villagers livelihood and the ecosystem. 

This article is just two weeks old. The news is so relevant. One World.

 

Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/18/world/asia/18mekong.html

Video: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/12/17/world/1247465930418/tur

Photos: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/12/17/world/20091217MEKONG_index.html

Meandering Down the Mekong River, Laos

 The Mekong River, 3,000 miles through China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying into the South China Sea.

Eat, sleep, play cards, watch the shoreline. Repeat. Laos time. Arrive Luang Prabang at sunset, two days, eighteen hours in passing.

Hanging with Sweds on the boat I learn a lot about Scandinavia and marvel at their ability to travel internationally with much frequency, despite modest work back home. The old saw, “Europeans work to live, Americans live to work,” rings true. Our priorities are different.

“The Simpler the Life, the Happier the Life.” Pakbeng with young Laos Family.

Have a late dinner at a Laos restaurant along the Mekong river. The boat arrived at 6 p.m. and will depart tomorrow at 9 in the morning. Other than some accommodations and restaurants for the daily boat, there is not much here.

The couple operating the restaurant are in their twenties and have a young son. Siblings, cousins, it’s a family effort, as is life here.  The people are warm, easy going and inviting. After the patrons leave, we hang out over Laos beer late into the night. We must have cheered to the new year at least a hundred times. The young wife lovingly caretakes their son without any fancy gadgets. The husband learned culinary arts in Chiang Mai, Thailand and opened his own restaurant a few years ago. At twenty-seven, he’s the “big boss.”

Later in the week, I have numerous discussions with fellow travelers who are equally moved by the strong family and social bonds. The Laos people are poor; their life is simple and humble. Yet they have a “social capital,” an appreciate-life-now philosophy missing in the West. They don’t have much. But they have each other.

In fact, I also come to learn that the concept of possession is foreign to the Lao people. The word for “mine” and ‘yours” is the same and there isn’t a word for an individual person. Laos are “communalist,” if that’s a word.

Mekong River to Laos River Crossing

New year, new country. Heading to Vietnam by land, so will have the opportunity to see remote Laos for a week or so. It’s a seven hour bus ride from Chiang Mai, Thailand to the border of Laos, where a Swede couple and I cross the Mekong to Huay Xai, Laos and board a slow going boat for a two day journey down river to the once French occupied cultural pearl of Luang Prabang. Will sleep at Pakbeng on the river.

Today Thailand Deports Vietnam War Era Hmong Refugees

As  I write tribal and ethnic conflict lives on –  not far from the highland river crossing. Thailand is deporting to Laos 4,000 ethnic Hmong asylum-seekers who are at risk from persecution by the government. They were soldiers or family members of soldiers -- the "forgotten allies" -- who decades ago fought in a secret army set up by the United States to combat the communist insurgents who eventually took over the country in 1975.

Secretary of State Clinton and her peers are speaking out, to no avail. Thailand and Laos, however small, are sovereign, after all.